Development

Lying on the northeastern-most point of the islet of
Old San Juan, Castillo San Felipe del Morro is named in honor of King
Philip II of Spain. The fortification, also referred to as el Morro or 'the
promontory,' was designed to guard the entrance to the
San Juan Bay, and defend the Spanish colonial port city of San Juan from seaborne enemies.

In 1983, the citadel was declared a
World Heritage Site by the
United Nations in conjunction with the
San Juan National Historic Site. Over two million visitors a year explore the castillo, making it one of Puerto Rico's leading tourist attractions. Facing the structure, on the opposite side of the bay, a smaller fortification known as El Cañuelo complemented the castillo's defense of the entrance to the bay.[3]

Structure for deployment

Architectural drawings produced in the
HABS San Juan, Puerto Rico field office

The military officers lead by Field Marshal
Alejandro O'Reilly and Chief of Engineers, Colonel
Tomás O'Daly, began to transform San Juan in 1765 into one of the most powerful plazas in the Americas. By the late 1780s, O'Daly and his military engineers had completed the modifications of El Morro giving it its present form. The construction of the wall around the city had already been completed. The largest fortification built by the Spaniards in the Americas, Castillo de San Cristóbal, had 450 cannons, used in 1797 by Captain General Ramon de Castro to arrest the 7,000 Englishmen commanded by General Ralph Abercromby. Many complex structures were added onto El Morro over the next 400 years to keep up with the new military technologies; for example, El Morro's outer walls, which were originally constructed 6 feet (1.8 m) thick, had been augmented to 18 feet (5.5 m) thickness by the end of the 18th century. Moreover, in 1680, Governor Enrique Enríquez de Sotomayor began the construction of the city walls surrounding San Juan, which took 48 years to build. The citadel was part of the Four Lines of Defense along with the
Castillo San Cristóbal, the first line being formed by the San Gerónimo fortress and the San Antonio bridge. Today, El Morro has six levels that rise from sea level to 145 feet (44 m) high. All along the walls are seen the dome-covered sentry boxes known as garitas, which have become a cultural symbol of Puerto Rico itself. The
Lighthouse of the Castillo San Felipe del Morro was built atop the citadel in 1843, but was destroyed during the 1898 bombardment of the city by the United States; it was replaced by the
US military with the current lighthouse in 1908. Including the exterior open killing grounds, known as the glacis and esplanade, which could be dominated by cannon in the 17th and 18th centuries, El Morro is said to take up over 70 acres (280,000 m²).

History

Spanish Rule (1539–1898)

El Morro

During the Spanish government of the island, El Morro, also known as Castillo de San Felipe, survived several attacks from foreign powers on various occasions.
In 1595, Englishman Sir
Francis Drake attacked
San Juan with his fleet. He failed, however, and the Spanish gunners shot a
cannonball through his cabin.

In 1598, the English attacked again, led by
George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland. Clifford succeeded because he attacked San Juan over land instead of trying to enter through the San Juan Bay. However, an epidemic of
dysentery forced him to flee the island.

In 1625, the
Dutch, led by
Boudewijn Hendricksz, also attacked the island emulating George Clifford's overland invasion. To the amazement of the citizens, the invaders were able to pass in front of the castle's defenders and into the harbor, out of reach of the city's cannons. El Morro managed to resist the siege and eventually made the Dutch retire, although they were able to sack and burn the city before leaving.

In 1797, British General Ralph Abercromby and Admiral Henry Harvey, with a force of 7,000–13,000 men, invaded the island of Puerto Rico. Captain General Don Ramón de Castro and his forces repelled the attack. Abercromby and Harvey were defeated.

El Morro's last active fight occurred during a naval bombardment by the
United States Navy during the 1898
Spanish–American War, ending the age of naval warfare in the Caribbean, at least in the classical sense. During the Spanish–American War, the castle was attacked at least three times by American naval forces, the largest being the
Bombardment of San Juan on May 12, 1898. The war ended with the signing of the
Treaty of Paris, in which Spain ceded ownership of the islands of
Puerto Rico,
Cuba, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States.

American military occupation (1898–1961)

U.S. Massive Concrete Bunker. Modification to the Spaniard fortification by US military during WW2

El Morro and many other Spanish government buildings in Old San Juan became part of a large U.S. Army post, called
Fort Brooke. In the early 20th century, the U.S. military filled up the
esplanade (the green space in front of "El Morro") with baseball diamonds, hospitals, officers' quarters, an officers' club and even a
golf course.

On March 21, 1915, Lt.
Teófilo Marxuach was the officer of the day at the El Morro fortress. The Odenwald (built in 1903 and not to be confused with the German World War II warship of the same name) was an armed German supply ship which tried to force its way out of the bay and deliver supplies to the German
submarines waiting in the Atlantic Ocean. Lt. Marxuach gave the order to open fire on the ship, which was forced to return; its supplies were confiscated.[5] The shots ordered by Lt. Marxuach are widely regarded to be the first shots fired by the United States in World War I, although the first actual wartime shot fired by the U.S. came on the day war was declared, during the
scuttling of the SMS Cormoran off
Guam.

During World War II the United States Army added a massive concrete bunker to the top of El Morro to serve as a Harbor Defense Fire Control Station to direct a network of coastal artillery sites, and to keep watch for German submarines which were ravaging shipping in the Caribbean. A lighthouse, rebuilt by the U.S. Army in 1906–08 is the tallest point on El Morro, standing 180 feet (55 m) above sea level. Flagpoles on El Morro today customarily fly the
United States flag, the
Puerto Rican flag and the
Cross of Burgundy flag, also known in Spanish as las Aspas de Borgoña, a standard which was widely used by Spanish armies around the world from 1506–1785.

National Park (1961–present)

Panorama view of the city from the castle

In 1961, the United States Army officially retired from El Morro. The fort became a part of the National Park Service to be preserved as museums. In 1983, the Castillo and the city walls were declared a
World Heritage Site by the
United Nations. In honor of the Quincentennial of the voyages of Columbus in 1992 the exterior esplanade was cleared of palm trees that had been planted by the U.S. Army in the Fort Brooke era, and restored to the open appearance this "field-of-fire" for El Morro's cannon would have had in colonial Spanish times. Parking lots and paved roads were also removed, and the El Morro lighthouse repaired and restored to its original appearance. El Morro was used as a film set in the 1996 motion picture Amistad.
Steven Spielberg used it to represent a fort in
Sierra Leone where African slaves were auctioned in 1839. African slave labor was used in addition to local labor to help build the castillo. El Morro was a defensive military fortification and a major component of San Juan's harbor defense system. Puerto Rico as such was considered by the Spanish crown as the "Key to the Antilles"; no enemy ship could navigate its waters without fear of capture.

1595 – Sir
Francis Drake attacks El Morro unsuccessfully by sea. Gunners from El Morro shoot a cannonball through the cabin of Drake's flagship. To impede Drake's ships from entering the bay, a metal chain was drawn across the entrance. Drake was defeated and many of his ships sunk.

1598 –
George Clifford, Duke of Cumberland, attacks from the land side in June of this year, the only time El Morro was taken in battle. English forces move into the fortress, however weakened by
dysentery they leave in November.

1625 – The Dutch under the command of Captain Balduino Enrico (also known as Boudewijn Hendricksz/Bowdoin Henrick) attacked and invaded San Juan from the "La Puntilla". El Morro held out under the leadership of Spanish Governor De Haro and Captain
Juan de Amézqueta of the Puerto Rican militia, but the city was sacked and burned.

1765 – After the siege of Havana in 1762 by the British, King Charles III appoints Field Marshal
Alejandro O'Reilly (Alexander O'Reilly) and Royal Engineer
Tomás O'Daly (Thomas O'Daly) to reform San Juan's fortifications and reorganize the garrison to make the city a "Defense of the First Order".

1787 – An
earthquake damages the structure of both San Felipe del Morro and San Cristóbal.[6]

1797 – General
Ralph Abercromby and Admiral
Henry Harvey, with a force of 7,000–13,000 men, invaded the island of Puerto Rico. Captain General Don Ramón de Castro and his forces repelled the attack. Abercromby and Harvey were defeated. This was to be one of the largest invasions to Spanish territories in the Americas.

1898 – On 12 May, US Navy warships
shell El Morro in a day-long bombardment, damaging the tip of the main battery. Six months later, Puerto Rico becomes U.S. territory by terms of the
Treaty of Paris which ends the
Spanish–American War.

1899 – The Department of the Navy rebuilds the lighthouse tower as an octagonal reinforced concrete structure using the iron structure as reinforcement. A new lenticular lens is installed. By 1906 a crack, through and around the top of the tower, directly under the lantern requires its demolition.

1915 – First shots of World War I fired by Lt.
Teófilo Marxuach on behalf of the United States. Marxuach, a native of
Arroyo, Puerto Rico, fired what is considered to be the first shot of World War I fired by the regular armed forces of the United States against any ship flying the colors of the
Central Powers.[7] Marxuach, who was a member of the "Porto Rico Regiment of Infantry" and Officer of the Day, on 25 March 1915, opened fire on the Odenwald, an armed German supply vessel, as it was trying to force its way out of San Juan's bay.

1942 – El Morro was still an active military post during World War II. The U.S. Army added concrete artillery observation posts and an underground bunker to El Morro to defend against possible German attacks.

1949 – San Juan National Historic Site is established.

1961 – The U.S. Army moves out of the forts of Old San Juan, and they become the jurisdiction of the United States
National Park Service, to be preserved solely as museums.

1992 – El Morro's grounds are returned to their historic 18th century appearance as part of quincentennial commemoration of the discovery of Puerto Rico by
Christopher Columbus when modern roadways and parking lots are removed. El Morro now generates tourism revenue by being open to tours.